ghost on paper

Chapter 1 The Mysterious Work of Translation

The dark-black fragment is semi-curved, with irregular fractures and palm-sized. It may be a fragment of pottery.

There are several darker veins on the fragment, sealed with dirt.

Truman took out a small brush from the utensils laid out on the tool table, and carefully swept away the dust on the texture of the pottery fragments. A clearer texture emerged, vaguely in the shape of a character.

Now, Truman took out a bottle of potion more carefully, poured the silver liquid in it on the dent, and kept tilting the pottery fragment to let the silver liquid flow slowly in the dent.

Clearer word marks emerged.

This is a word 'quiet'.

This is the third word for today.

At the same time, Truman only felt that a string in his head was being torn tightly, and the huge boredom affected his body from the spirit.

His brain is screaming, his hands are shaking, his cognition of the world has changed from rational to irrational, and he just wants to roar and roar.

Today's 'share' is not enough...

Truman hurriedly closed his eyes, panting heavily, to calm his beating heart.

Until the string in his mind returned to calm, but the anxiety and rage still boiled in his heart.

Truman opened his eyes again, and hastily copied the word "鹙" on the paper with a quill pen, which continued to consume his "share" today.

But he had to complete it at this moment, because every time he completed a word, he could get more rewards.

After finishing writing, Truman hurriedly picked up the results of his work today, stood up, put on his coat, and left the cubicle.

This is a long corridor. Dim electric lights are on every ten meters, but they can't penetrate the depths. Looking into the depths, it seems to lead to hell.

Both sides of the corridor are cubicles with the same pattern, and there are about ten "apprentices" in there. The job of each "apprentice" is to identify the mysterious characters for the owner of the workshop.

Deciphering these characters requires a 'share' as a price.

The so-called 'share' refers to human's understanding and feelings towards the world. When all 'share' is lost, human beings will degenerate into beasts. From this point of view, maybe 'share' can be interpreted as 'reason'.

But it's not that simple.

This world hides the mystery and darkness that Truman cannot understand.

Looking at these cubicles, Truman is sad with only a little reason left. Before the time travel, he was a small employee in the company, but after the time travel, he still has to be a cow.

The difference is that before time-traveling, he was performing arts but not himself, after time-traveling he was selling himself as well...

"Completed today... three words?"

In the office at the end of the corridor, Truman met Anton, the manager of the apprentices and the official student of the workshop owner.

As a formal apprentice, Anton is qualified to have access to those extraordinary knowledge, that is, the 'complete knowledge' spliced ​​by Truman and other apprentices from those mysterious words.

This knowledge is also Truman's goal.

Of course, his more realistic goal is to survive in this world. As a time traveler, his life is very difficult.

"Yes." Truman endured the irritability in his heart, stretched out his hand, and demanded his reward for today.

"Other apprentices can only complete two words a day, but you can complete three. This kind of diligence is worth encouraging, but be careful about your 'share', you don't want to become a lunatic, do you?"

Faced with Anton's warning, Truman just felt bored. The feeling that there is not much left in his mind is probably the same as someone whispering in your ear to drink more water when you have kidney stones.

"...I got it!" Truman whispered, "Reward!"

All right.Anton shrugged, took out nine silver coins from the purse, and put them in Truman's hand: "Your reward."

He took out three more, "Your reward."

The workshop encourages the apprentices to complete more work, and Anton especially encourages this. The more the apprentices complete, the more satisfied the workshop owner will be with Anton, but the premise is that the apprentices do not become lunatics.

Otherwise Anton would lose a precious manpower.

After all, there are not many human beings who are qualified to be apprentices but have no other choice but to be apprentices.

……

boom!
The workshop gate closed behind Truman.

There is a dark alley in front of you. In the twilight, there are suspicious homeless people wandering on the street. They quietly look at the pedestrians on the street with wolf-like eyes, and they may turn into robbers, thieves or liars at any time.

But for the Trumen who walked out of the workshop, these homeless people chose to avoid looking. The owner of the workshop has a powerful and hidden power in the legend. Compared with this power, mortals are as humble as ants.

Truman quickly walked out of the alley and came to the main street. Although it was still remote, he could already look up at the huge chimneys and thick black smoke in the center of the city. Running through the muddy streets.

According to Truman's understanding, this should be a world in the early stages of the industrial revolution, roughly equivalent to the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries of the earth...

Truman pressed his head, he couldn't continue to think normally, his 'share' was so low that he was about to turn into a beast.

The world began to become colorful in front of Truman, and the electric lights on the street drew special effects of radiance, which almost made Truman feel that he had returned to before time travel.

Hehe... He couldn't help making a smirk, and then stroked his face, feeling the mentally retarded happiness, and then slapped himself very angrily.

When the 'share' is too low, human defenses are as fragile as paper, and at the same time they lose the ability to control themselves.

This is terrible.

Anton believes that Truman must rest for at least three days before continuing to work.

Truman didn't think so.

He staggered back home like a drunk, and when the landlord was yelling at him to pay the rent, he threw three gold coins over.

"This is only enough for your next month's rent. If you want me to provide catering services and continue to enjoy your bread, bacon, milk and tea, you have to pay me another gold pound." The landlord muttered, "You are outside You can't eat such delicious dishes in the restaurant!"

Truman had already slammed the door in front of him, and then threw himself on the hard mattress.

When this stingy landlord rented, he promised to provide the tenant with a mattress as soft as velvet, but in fact there was only a thin layer of cotton mattress, and Truman knew that there was something better to sleep than velvet called Simmons or latex Mattresses and such...

Messy thoughts ran around in Truman's mind like a herd of out-of-control rabbits, and his remaining rationality chased these crazy rabbits like old hounds, and the end of the out-of-control was imminent.

Until the bell rang twelve times in succession in the corridor.

clang, clang, clang...

When the last bell rang, Truman let out a long breath. He opened his eyes and looked at the computer screen in front of him. He traveled back, but the time was only one hour.

(End of this chapter)